2013.09.27 - Kree Sentry Appears
It is a cool night here north of the city. To the south, there is a faint glow of Metropolis still being able to be seen against the horizon and clouds above. Up here at Breakstone Lake, it has been peaceful and quiet up until recently. Astronomers followed an incoming object that did not burn up completely as it entered the atmosphere. It crashed here last night, and the area seemed to go quiet with any kind of communication or radiation signals coming up. The call had gone to the Avengers to send folks up to investigate, but the call was sent as a APB so others have undoutbably heard it as well. Captain America is on his way up. He is driving his motorcycle up from the city rather than flying a Quinjet as it is not that far north and it appears to be a small contingent tonight. He is in contact with JARVIS back in the Tower as he travels. "Almost to Breakstone Lake. Notice the power seems to be down around here. Even the few lights along the high way are gone as I get closer. I'll report again when at the destination." She may not be an Avenger... yes, but Carol has connections in SHIELD, as well as NASA and the CIA. So she was on the short list for someone... someone in the know, to call and suggest that she might look into this. Her ability to absorb energy is definitely a plus since the whole radiation thing is always a danger. Now, the irony is that someone who can fly... prefers to use vehicular transport when the ability exists. But it shouldn't be that surprising from a fighter pilot that she prefers to have the controls in her -hands-. So it is that a Duchati... mostly fire engine red with blue highlights, has its headlight illuminating Cap from behind as she catches up. Because let's face it... country roads, fighter pilot... and speed limits, just don't mix. Murphy must have been one seriously miserable person. Because Murphy's Law strikes. Often. Driving back toward Manhattan from a day's worth of meetings at an industrial complex up in Horseheads, Pepper, with her ever present teal bag on the seat next to her is trying to get Booster Gold to agree to SOME kind of food for dinner. Because darn it, she is NOT going to go home and eat leftover salad after two days of meetings and handshaking and ... "Miss Potts," JARVIS interrupts. "Captain Rogers is approaching from the south, en route to Breakstone Lake approximately point seven six miles ahead." Pepper looks at Michael (and Skeets?) with her eyebrows raised. "We really should keep going." "What? No, is that a thing? We should go deal with that, if it's a thing," says Michael, who hides his relief at the subject change; food selection is difficult for him, because the food from his native era is awful and he still suffers culture shock from the food bounty of the early 21st century. He even pulls open the top buttons of his shirt, which normally he would never do in front of one of his employers, but in this case it is because he has his shiny blue and gold powersuit on underneath. Skeets is actually settled on the seat beside Michael, because free-floating in a car is probably dangerous. Michael offers, with enthusiasm, "I can fly the whole car over, if you want." Cap hears JARVIS communicating to Pepper. "Pepper, this is Cap. Got any back up with you at the moment? I would prefer to have someone with me going into this. Better safe than sorry." His eyes flick to his mirror and the fast approaching car from his rear, but then he is turning off the main road and onto an access road. While the pavement ends, he continues on quickly over the dirt. From up ahead, it is perfectly quiet. As the saying goes, perhaps too quiet. There are no frog noises. No insects. It is cool tonight, but there hasn't been a freeze yet to kill anything. Not even any bird noises either. Cap begins to slow down as the hairs on the back of his neck begin to tingle when up ahead, to the right of the road, and at tree top level, two glowing dots appear. They grow in intensity for a few moments before energy beams of bluish green comes streaking out at the road. Car? Nah. It's the single headlight of another motorcycle. A Ducati crotch rocket type that blasts past Cap as Carol glances over and notices.. hey... that's... that's Cap! She lets off the throttle then and drops back with the star spangled hero. She.. she's in civies, but can change in an instant of course. "Hey Cap! I didn't know they called you in!" she calls out. Sure, she might not exactly be known on sight to Cap but... that's when her seventh sense kicks in. All of a sudden, she accelerates again and cuts across cap's path, skidding those tires to a stop before holding up her hands almost like trying to ward off something... turns out she's right in the path of those beams and trying to absorb them... mind you, as she does all this, she also triggers her costume change... sans the red helmet thingee she wears when flying stupid fast. Pepper Potts shakes her head no at Booster. "No, Michael, I don't think that'll be necessar..." The blue-green flash of light startles her and she braces one hand on the back of the seat in front of her as the Bentley's driver pulls to the shoulder and stops extremely quickly. No screeching of tires, though, it IS a Bentley, after all. "What was that?" she asks even as she drapes one over her bag and reaches to keep Skeets from getting launched to the floorboards. "JARVIS?" "Unknown, Miss Potts. The only other contact I have in the area around the lake is Captain Rogers' communications unit." "Yeah, you're right, I wouldn't know where to put it once I got there," Michael agrees, with regards to carrying an entire car into battle. When the flash happens, he pulls his shirt off entirely and touches the window-opening toggle on his side as he says, "Skeets, stay in here. Ms. Potts, I'm going to go on ahead and see if I can help contain whatever -that- was." He starts to exit through the window, then hesitates and pulls his keys and wallet from the pocket of his trousers, which he still has on over his costume. "Wait..." He tosses the items down next to his robot valet. "Okay, now I'm going!" Booster Gold flies out of the Bentley, then, soaring towards the source of the energy beams, pulling on his cowl and goggles as he goes. Thor got the Call from more than one end. Midgard's Cry pulled him from baby playtime, and had him handing over the child to the nearest adult in his apartment (Loki? a handmaiden? Sif? Thor really didn't take the time to check seeing as the Call was slightly dizzying), and began to fly toward the source. And then his Avengers com went off and the starting chatter from JARVIS has the Thunderer reaching up to tap his commlink. "I am on my way, my friends. Captain, do tell me where thou wouldst have me. Midgard does find whatever is before us most disturbing," Thor says into his commlink with his usual toned down boom. Because Avengers commlinks feedback if he gets too loud. Or something. Maybe someone told Thor that once just to get him to talk softer. Or maybe it really is a thing. There's no telling, really. Anyway... As Thor arrives over the crash sight, he hovers, red cape bellowing out around him. His stormy eyes peer down, hoping to see what has caused all this fuss and muss. Cap glances over at Carol and is about to respond to her when the lights begin to glow. As she accelerates, Cap hits the breaks and pulls the bike into a sideways skid to slow it down quickly. He is pulling his shield from the front of the bike even as Carol is taking the energy blasts. "All Avengers, I am taking fire," he calls out over his commlink. "Unknown assailant as of yet. Energy beams coming in. Source is about fifteen feet above the ground, but otherwise I can't see it." He sees the costume change of Carol as she takes the hit. "Also looks like I've got Ms. Marvel on scene too." The beams crash into the colorful form of Ms. Marvel with the sure shot of a rifle, but they are absorbed. The beams cut out a moment later and the trees part as something large is coming out. It is a massive robot. Easily fifteen feet high and colored in purple armor and blue face plate. It moves towards Ms. Marvel quickly now and rather than shoot, it swings a massive metallic hand at her as he tries to grab her off the ground. As the beams impact Carol's hands and arms and are absorbed into her, she calls back over her shoulder to Cap, "Actually, I go by Captain Marvel these days if you've missed the news reports and such." And then she looks back and her eyes widen. "Pama..." She mutters softly. "Um Cap. We have a problem." She doesn't know Thor is up above, not yet. She's -totally- tunnel visioned now. Kree Sentry... nothing else matters. "That's a Sentry. I've dealt with them before. They're adaptable, durable, and almost impossible to keep down. More importantly, if it's here, that means that the entire Kree Armada is likely en route here. It's in contact with the rest of the Kree." She steps off of her bike now after putting down the kickstand, and starts striding towards the robot. She calls out in the Kree Tongue. She's hoping to distract it for at least a few moments. The fact that she is glowing visibly might draw attention too. The fact that her genetics are exactly what the Kree Supreme Intelligence would want to have the Sentry take and deliver back home... could be a problem. The massive grabbing hand will be met with a full strength punch from the boosted Carol's fist. She doesn't expect to damage it, but just to deflect the grab. she repeats. "Miss Potts, Captain Rogers has reported that he is under fire. Also, Thor has acknowledged and will be arriving shortly, and the sensors on the Captain's motorcycle have picked up a SHIELD communications frequency in close proximity." Pepper curses faintly under her breath and digs what looks like a Bluetooth earpiece out of her bag. "Link me directly, JARVIS, and patch that SHIELD frequency in, too. Steve? Are you all right? Booster Gold is on his way now and I'm..." She leans forward to look out of the car's front windshield past the probably a little bit freaked-out driver. "... about a quarter of a mile away in a car." Pausing briefly, she looks at the little gold automaton still on the seat next to her. "Skeets, will you be able to protect this car if I go out there and help Booster?" Skeets tilts and turns a bit as if he were looking around the car's interior. Then, he says, "Yes, ma'am. I can't shield it but I believe I'll be able to help move it out of the way quite efficiently if we need to flee." The small robot flies up to where the driver is. "You can think of me as an astromech droid if that helps, sir." he tells the nervous driver, trying to maintain calm by utilizing pop culture of the current era. Booster Gold, meanwhile, is arrowing towards the huge robot, clearly ready to clobber it. However, he sees Carol dealing with it, although he does not understand the language she is using. So, instead, he flies around the Sentry and calls out, "Captain Marvel, are you negotiating with this?" "Indeed, Captain. I see thy attacker. It is but a wee golem, twice as tall as I. It shall fall in short order," informs the Asgardian as he moves to angle himself to literally dive bomb the robot. Mjolnir is raised over his head as Thor plummets. Because Thor's answer to things is: I bash it with my hammer. It's usually a good tactic. "FOR MIDGARD!" cries the Thunderer, a battle cry to rattle windows with a deep roll of thunder. It follows the bolt of lightning the Lord of Storms summons from the quickly darkening sky above. The white-blue bolt of electricity strikes Mjolnir, charging the weapon so that the whole of the hammer's striking surface glows vividly in the fading light. Thor seeks to bring the hammer down fully onto... into?!... the Sentry's head, and the lightning into its body. His hair and cape stream behind him, and his eyes are the same electric blue as Mjolnir's lightning-filled runes. The grabbing hand of the Sentry is knocked sideways by the punch and it back hands a tree, snapping it in half. The Sentry stands up fully once more. it responds automatically. "New Target aquired," it rattles off switching to the new language it has been monitoring for the past 24 hours. "Threat assessment...High." It lifts its head and looks at the plummeting Thunder God. Again, its eyes glow and energy lances up to meet the Asgardian. Even if it doesn't stop him, the energy should slow him down enough so that the Sentry and survive the lightning strike. Independently, the arms are tracking targets as well. As Booster comes in, one metallic hand tries to grab at the Man of Tomorr...Well, the man of tomorrow. "Careful, Thor," calls Cap into the ID Card. "You are coming down right on our position." He looks around at Capt. Marvel and now Booster. "SCRAMBLE! We have Incoming!" He tries to back up towards the opposite side of the road, keeping his shield up in front of him. "Aggressive Negotiation yes!" calls Carol towards Booster. "If I only had a light saber I could do it right!" and then as the robot aims upward, she rolls her neck and says, "Thanks Cap. I think I'll try this though." and she spreads hands out from her body, golden energy glowing about them... with almost a fiery aura about the energy before she channels all the power she absorbed into her hands, charging them up before she aims right at the head of the robot. Not trying to destroy its CPU or anything.. Kree Sentries aren't primitive enough to have just one little core in the head. She's noticed Thor's downward plunge, and is trying to help distract its target with a focused blast bordering on the power level of fission bombs... not quite but definitely up there in that scale. She does however, stand her ground and if/when Thor impacts, the blast wave will flood around her, sending her reeling but with the warning she got, she won't be doing the rag doll approach.... she's strong and tough after all. And her mentality is quite often too stupid to come in out of the rain, so to speak. Peter grips the wheel and his face grimaces as he tries to see what's going on. He looks up into the mirror to see Pepper with Skeets in the back seat. His eyes drift down towards his backpack and his lip pinches between the teeth as he ponder ponder ponders. . o O (Should I?) There's a big bit about secret identities, but he's had close scrapes with that sort of thing before. An eyebrow goes up as he once again looks into the back seat. "Miss Potts this is too much for me; I've got to find cover!" His hand pulls open the handle as the other arm juts out for the backpack. Click, flip, zip and he's out the door and running for the trees. "I don't get paid enough for this!" says the intern as he runs away. Pepper Potts is honestly shocked that Peter bailed on her. She can't really blame him, this is not a very good situation and he's just a kid still, but ... "Seriously?" She sighs. "Well, Skeets, I guess you're off the hook unless you want to keep protecting the car." She won't expect the little gold AI to do so, there's not really anything in here that she feels can't be easily replaced now that Peter's high-tailed it. Kicking off her heels, she pushes open the door on her side of the Bentley at the same time as slapping her free hand over the Coach/Stark symbol on the bag in her lap. By the time she's fully exited the car, the teal and bronze faceplate of the Rescue armor closes down over her face. "I'd be more than happy to protect it, Ms. Potts," Skeets assures Pepper, floating over into the driver's seat once Peter vacates it. He does not sit, of course, he just floats there and studies the vehicle's systems. He will probably be driving this car sooner rather than later. "Roger!" Booster says, to Carol. With Captain America's warning, Booster turns and then keeps turning to fly aside once he sees the big hand reaching for him. Much like Carol, he surfs the shock wave that will inevitably result, whether Thor hits his target or not. He angles his flight, then, to scoop up the tree that the Sentry knocked down. "Sorry, tree!" Booster brings it up like a huge club, aiming to give the robot a whack across the back with it. The Sentry's upward blast at him does indeed rattle the Thunderer, stinging more than a little. It prevents him from putting forth his full focus into the physical attack. The lightning, likewise, doesn't hit as squarely as the Thunderer would have liked. Thor flies backwards a bit as the blast sends him reeling backwards several yards, not bothered by the shock wave at all, nor bothered by the little sparkles of lightning that pulse from the Sentry in the after-attack. A faint smirking grin breaks out over his face. "The golem doth have some fight to it! Come then. Let us see thee last long against a Prince of Asgard!" Thor taunts the Sentry, even as he moves to close the distance again. He's being large, in charge (electrical charge!), and loud. The perfect distraction for the rest of hte heroes to target with ranged attacks, for Captain to call the play and ensure the group focuses fire, to keep Pepper Potts and her mortal driver from being noticed and therefore squished. Yes, Kree Sentry. Threat Assessment: IN YER FAYCE! FOR ASGARD RAR! I mean... FOR MIDGARD! RAR! Thor spots Booster with the tree and so flutters himself to the side, flinging a small lightning bolt (small in the Asgardian sense) at the Sentry in his continued effort to keep its attention and give Booster a tactical advantage of flanking the golem. Tanky Thor is Tanky! The blast of Sentry meeting Thuder does indeed send shockwaves out. Trees bend and some branches, big ones too, snap and get flung about. Grass is blasted flat much like crop circles here in the middle of the woods and country road. The Sentry turns to regard the new threats coming in. Electrical energy glitters across its armored body as the attack of Thor works its way to the ground. Booster's tree connects with its back even as Thor's new lightning attack strikes plus the strike from Capt. Marvel. The robot staggers forward and the tree actually catches on fire from energy across the robot's body. Even as it staggers forward, the dent in the back of the robot appears to be repairing itself. "Multiple targets. Tracking and proceeding with extermination." It reaches down to pull the other half of the tree out of the ground. Dirt rains from the roots as it swings the new found club towards Thor. Cap drops into a crouch, shield at the ready, as the impact comes. He is able to block the branches and natural shrapnel as it flies about. "Thor, Booster, Capt. Marvel, it's too big for any one of us. Wolf pack. Two attack but feint from the front. As it turns, the third strikes. See if we can't hamstring this thing." "Keep in mind, it's also an alien design. The Kree built these things to last. Also to take on the entire military force of a single world." says Carol as she uncrosses her arms after resisting the shock wave. She hears Cap and nods, "If we only had an axe made out of that same material as your shield, or that hammer." she says as she lifts off the ground and starts blasting with rapid fire bursts of photonic energy. They're not so much heavily impacting... as bright flashes aimed to distract and temporarily overload the optical sensors of the Sentry. That won't last long, but she does say.... in Kree once more.. Hey, it's worth a shot. High above the tree tops comes a flailing figure in red and blue. He seems to have been catapulted through the air with great force. It's definitely some sort of mechanism because he certainly isn't flying; more doing the bicycle as he flies through the air. "Lock S-foils in attack position," Spider-Man whispers as he screams towards the action via the ole slingshot method. "Wait," he says to himself. "Did someone just say something about entire military forces of single worlds?" The problem with the slingshot is there's no rewind button. Rescue takes a moment to get her bearings, and then her voice joins their comms a lot more clearly than before. "I'll be there in a moment. Maybe JARVIS can find a weakness in that thing." With a flare of repulsors, she's airborne and on her way... and mentally freaking out just a little bit. She is really doing this. For real. It's not some exercise or practice that Tony or Clint or someone else thought up. Holy crap, this is for real. "Whoah." Booster holds the broken, flaming tree at arm's length, looking around quickly for a place to put it. Just hucking it into the forest would be a bad idea. His force field briefly surrounds and claps close onto the burning log, snuffing the flames, so he can drop the smoldering tree onto the road. Gesturing towards Captain America, Booster says, "I am -really good- at being a target!" He starts to glow as he flies to be somewhat adjacent with Carol. He extends his arms, fists pointed at the robot, stinging golden blasts of energy firing at its face to harry it. The good news is, if Spider-Man ends up in the way, at least those blasts merely hurt a lot. In the meantime, Skeets has managed to get the car into reverse and is carefully backing it up, to get it well out of the way of the battle. Quietly, he murmurs, "Aw, yes." "Aye, Captain," calls the Son of Asgard to the Super Soldier, easily following the mortal's tactical calls. And so Thor pulls his arm back to throw his hammer toward the Sentry's head... and spots Spider-man flailing into the fray. Half a heartbeat considers passing as Thor switches tactics. The Thunderer rockets toward Spider-Man, left arm reaching out to pluck the youth from the air even as he twists his body to throw Mjolnir at the Sentry's head from just beyond the thing's right shoulder...and promptly free falls toward the ground. Which will force Mjolnir into a different angle of attack from the Sentry's other side should the first attack (really, it's about as much of a feint as the Thunderer is capable of) miss and Thor resummons the relic to his grasp. Well, even if the hammer finds its mark, it will leave the Thunderer ground bound with his relic. Which could be interesting should he find himself willing to rend the local terrain open beneath the thing's feet. And all the while, Thor keeps his left arm wrapped carefully but firmly about his young Midgardian charge, standing still with his right hand extended to await Mjolnir's return. He turns ever so slightly to set Spider-Man on his feet just behind his left hip. "Thou should take more care, Mortal, for I hazard to guess thou can not fly," murmurs Thor to Spider-Man in his deep and rumbling voice. And then he is calling out again. (Because Thor is quick to forget COMMLINKS.) "To glorious battle, my friends! Our foe shall not stand long before us, for our combined wrath is indeed most mighty!" Booming voice and everything. Do Avengers commlinks really feedback, or was that someone pulling Thor's cape again? "Then no need to hold back punches, Captain. If this thing can take an army, lets give it the Avengers." Captain America comes to his feet and hurls the shield towards the robot's head to meet with the heavy hammer of Thor. "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" He is running towards the robot as soon as he threw the shield and called out. He holds out his hand waiting for the rebound of his shield. The Sentry turns to regard Capt. Marvel. He is cut off as the attacks have begun to pour on. Its hands swing and try to bat away the blasts of Marvel and Booster like they were gnats. It steps forward and then KLANG! as the hammer and shield strike. Birds erupt from the brush and trees with gong like sound of battle. The Sentry's head swivels around as it tries to lock on a target as it steps to and fro. Eyes light up and the blast is fired. Towards Booster this time. And suddenly.. Carol is struck with inspiration. "Thor... that lightning of yours.." she says over the comm that has mysteriously managed to link up now. "Can you hit me with all you've got? Don't hold back... I need the juice. Cap, if I get enough power... I could get to the energy output level of anti star ship warheads... nukes. But focused on one spot without the fallout. However, if I don't time it right, I could overload. That could cause an unidirectional release of that same energy. So... let's hope that I can handle it, right?" She flies straight up and suggests. "If you're gonna do it, do it now. If you decide the risk isn't worth it, say so..." and if she's told they are -not- doing that plan, she will pull a Thor-ish maneuver, and aim downward with a power dive, expelling full force energy blasts from each hand as those hands impact the thing. Otherwise... it's charge up time. Oof! Spidey is plucked from the sky by the God of Thunder and comes to the Earth beside him. "Wow, thanks Norway. Didn't realize what I was gettin' into when I was gettin' goin. You know if this cat has a weakness?" Before Spider-Man waits for an answer he's all shooty shooty with his webshooters, trying to confuse the robot by covering up visual sensors with webbing. Rescue finally gets close enough for the suit's sensors to start analyzing the giant robot. "Any good news, JARVIS?" She's hoping the AI will find some kind of Achilles' heel on the thing so they can stop it quickly. Though, it's possible that hovering in one place within easy eye shot of the Kree sentry might not be the smartest thing to do... You paged Edna Mode with 'Sure. Go ahead and pose Cap saying something like "Sounds like a plan, but keep it as tight as you can be. Not far enough for civilization for such a massive blast."' "Well, I'm -Legion-, actually, but I get what you mean," Booster says, in response to Captain America's rallying cry. Then, he is being blasted by the Sentry's eye beams, the energy washing over him and smashing him back several meters, right into the ground. He leaves a modest crater, but gets up on one knee, gritting his teeth as he starts to absorb the rest of the blast. "Ah, crap," Booster mutters quietly, focusing on letting his suit recycle the energy back into his power cells. "I'm good!" he exclaims, then, secretly hoping he is. He fires his wrist blasters at the robot in retaliation, aiming less for damage and more to try to keep its attention. "Nay, Mortal. I do not," Thor replies to Spider-Man even as his eyes track to Carol. He is a little concerned with hitting an ally with his lightning, but the tactic is sound. So, he looks to Steve for the call, deferring to the Soldier's keen military insights on the matter. "Thor. Do it. Just keep it tight. We're not far enough from civilians for a massive blast," replies the Captain to the Deity. And Thor nods. He lifts from the ground, leaving Spider-Man to fend for himself, so he can be clear of grounding the power he summons. His eyes flare with electricity and a heartbeat later, a brilliant, eye-seering bolt lashes fro the sky to Mjolnir, only for Thor to redirect it at Carol. "As thou requests, Captain Marvel! Have at thee!!" Thor bellows as the lightning pours into and then out of him. A crack of thunder rolls from the bolt, making the very trees shudder with the intensity of the soundwaves. ((OOC: Power at 400% capacity...)) "Booster Gold, try and absorb as much stray energy as you can," calls out Captain America. "We need to keep this blast contained!" His head whips around to see Rescue coming in. "Rescue, can you assist Booster Gold in absorbing or redirecting energy?" He gets his shield back up onto his arm as he moves and directs the team against the massively powerful foe. "Nice shot, Web Head." He looks to Capt. Marvel. "Now! While he can't see. Keep the blast as concentrated as you can, Captain." The Sentry begins to advance on Booster as he fell, but suddenly it cannot see. Hands go up to its face, trying to pull the webbing out of its eyes even as it begins to stamp its foot trying to get lucking and hit anyone on the ground. The skin glows with the illumination from the massive lightning strike that crackles in front of it as Thor sends the Power of Greyskull down on Carol. Here comes the rain... oh and the thunder, and the LIGHTNING! Carol thinks she is ready for it, but when the god of thunder calls down the storm... is anyone truly ready for it? A plasma bolt from the heavens, after all.. what else IS stupid powerful lightning? It strikes Carol and her arms go out to her sides. She forcibly curls her arms and legs in on herself and at the moment, all she can think about is one movie quote that actually makes her giggle a little bit over the comm. What the hell.. she's absorbing the power of the storm, so she mutters for the entertainment of others, "There can be only one?" with a bad English accent. Then... when she feels her control starting to slip, she aims downward and screams incoherently as she channels all of that power along with all of her own, into one mighty blast. There will be an impact crater on the ground, sure... well two as doing this is going to make Carol pass out and then crash herself... though her crater will be much smaller. Rescue is not exactly encouraged by the fact that JARVIS doesn't seem to be finding ANY weaknesses in this giant robot thing. When Steve tells her to help Booster with 'absorbing and redirecting energy', she's not exactly sure what he means by that, but hopefully she'll figure it out quickly enough. And then Carol happens. "What in the world?" How the heck is she supposed to help with something like THAT? Booster staggers to his feet, looking a little lost as he tries to figure out just how he is going to help absorb excess energy, since he can only be in one place at one time. Or--can he? "Got it," he says, flying upwards and towards the Sentry, trying to time this right. There is the lightning bolt, and then Captain Marvel soaking it up and blasting the big robot. Just as she unleashes the last of the channeled energy, Booster holds his hands out and a translucent golden force-field appears in a -big- bubble around the overloading robot. He squints a little and grits his teeth, because he is pouring everything into (hopefully) blast containment. The Sentry is caught at ground zero of the blast. It looks like it is being held beneath the launch of a space shuttle. The ground lights up with fire and sound as it tries to expand outward but hits Booster's shield. The force and pressure pound against the young man's bubble and the energy swirls and heads straight back up towards Capt. Marvel as it cannot go outward. The robot arches and the metal almost screams as it jerks and collapses within the explosion. "NOW, Rescue!" Captain America points towards the spent Marvel. "Get her out of there before she is caught in the backlash. Sweat pops out on his brow even as some of the broken branches begins to pop with fire and heat that isn't fully contained in the bubble. Rescue blinks and then her HUD pings on Carol's form and she reacts, zipping forward to pull the woman clear of the backlash of that hellish attack. And then, as she's settling the blonde on the ground well clear of the epicenter of this mess, she notices a tangle of red and blue a little ways away... and Steve's still standing over there. The heck? A quick repulsor 'hop', and she's gasping faintly then starting to pull Spider-Man free of a singed looking shrub as delicately as she can. "When did Spider-Man show up?" As the area starts to overheat, Thor lands down between Steve and the blast, blue eyes watching Booster take the brunt of the contained explosion. "A cold rain would prevent a forest fire," Thor says to captain in a very Smokey Bear sort of voice. Because only Thor can prevent ....yeah. He'll wait for the go ahead to summon the rain, so cold it is nearly frozen, and an arctic sweep of wind to go with it, just to help keep things chill. Get it? :D Booster Gold says something, although it is not in English, and might actually be a curse word. He drops to the ground, although not too abruptly and at least he manages to stay on his feet. He has his hands to either side of his head now, because he really has to concentrate to keep that force field up against the beating it is taking. Fire and energy spews out of it here and there as it cracks through, although these ruptures seal up, just as others burst open. "Rain would be good!" he exclaims when he hears Thor's suggestion, sounding more than a little strained. Then, they would not have to worry about fire lashing out at the trees when the force field finally falls. Captain America nods to Thor. "It would indeed, old friend." Even as the rain begins and falls with big heavy drops around them, he walks over and puts a hand on Booster's shoulder. "Great job," he says quietly for the young man before looking up and over towards Rescue. "How are those two?" The Sentry lays unmoving on the ground. Its body is blackened from the blast with a few rips in its armored hide. Rescue manages to untangle Spider-man from the shrubbery and sets him down near Carol before answering Steve. "I can't really tell. Not good, but better than being in a car crash?" She turns to look toward the two men still standing as the rain starts to drench the area. "We should get them to a..." glancing at Spider-Man, she abruptly changes what she was about to say. "To the Tower. As much as Tony has zero sense of self-preservation, there's a pretty well stocked medical kind of room one floor up from his workshop. Help me get them back to the car?" Booster looks as if he is going to collapse on the spot. He does not take down his force field so much as it just starts to disintegrate as his power reserves are tapped out, but by then the rain is falling and ready to deal with the remaining fires. Rocking on his feet as if he were about to topple backwards, he steadies himself when Captain America pats him on the shoulder. "Thank you, sir." Booster's hair is getting soaked by the rain now, proof that he really has no power left for a personal force field. He moves to help with the unconscious heroes, although there are headlights approaching now, through the rain. The Bentley rolls up slowly, with the golden form of Skeets just visible through the windshield. He honks twice. Captain America heads over and hoists the unconscious form of Spider-Man into a fireman's carry and turns towards the car. As he heads over, Cap spots Skeets and gives a quizzical look, even in the mask, towards Booster and Rescue. "Is this one of Tony's new cars? Is it supposed to be driven by a floating football?" He moves around towards the backseat, using his spare hand to open the door so as to put Spidey in the back. Rescue moves to pick Carol up in a probably more dignified way than Steve just wrangled Spider-Man, and follows him to the car. "Skeets," she calls out with the mechanical distortion typical of Stark's armors, "you are now my new best friend." She pauses next to Booster, the teal armor making carrying the unconscious woman almost ridiculously easy. "Take the driver's seat, but let Skeets keep driving. You know the way back to the Tower, right?" she asks of the little golden robot as she steps around to settle Carol in the front passenger's seat. The upholstery will survive the rain and mud. Really. "This can't possibly be legal," says Booster, very quietly, ostensibly to Pepper but half to himself. A little louder, he tells Steve, "This is Skeets, he's my assistant." "Hello, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you," Skeets politely chirps, to Captain America. To Rescue, he says, "Yes, ma'am, I have full GPS access. I could also trigger any street lights on our way there to be green for us, if you wish." "-No-," Booster tells the robot, as he gets in on the driver's side. "Oh hey, you're really plugged in here, aren't you. Just... stay a little lower, I am not going to go to traffic court for you." Cap shuts the door after securing Spider-Man in the back seat and then moves to look in the window at Booster. "Good to meet you, Skeets," he says without pause. If anything, he must be getting used to it all by now. "I'll be right behind you if you need anything. If something goes wrong, tap the breaks twice like dot dot, and I'll get up along side on my bike." He looks from Booster to Rescue on the other side. "I'll see you back at the Tower." "Um, Steve?" Is it possible for a high tech armor to FIDGET? "JARVIS pointed out two motorcycles to me over there. I ... haven't ridden a motorcycle in at least ten years." And of course, there's the whole problem of she's wearing a narrow skirt under her armor, and her shoes are on the floorboards of the Bentley. "Can you kind of... pick it up and fly with it?" Booster suggests, to Rescue. "I bet you could. If not, then hide it and I'll fly back to get it after we get these two some medical attention at the Tower." He gestures towards the back of the car. "I'm... going to try to charge my power cells up during the drive." It's a little like plugging in one's smartphone. Cap looks back towards the motorcycles. "One is mine. I'll ride it back. The other belongs to Capt. Marvel," he says with a nod towards the unconscious woman in the front seat. "I don't know the full capabilities of your armor yet, but if it is anything like Tony's, I would expect Booster Gold's suggestion could be the best one." Rescue blinks several times behind her armor's face plate. (What? It's keeping the rain out.) "I ... could try that." She nods to Steve then Booster. "See you both back at the Tower." Now, she gets to try and figure out the best way to fly and carry Carol's motorcycle without damaging the poor thing. The Bentley starts to smoothly turn and roll out, with Skeets humming quietly and happily at the controls. Booster just slumps back in the seat, because the only thing that was keeping him conscious was stubborn willpower. His eyes pop open, then, and he says, "Oh man, Pete ran off, didn't he?" Glancing in the rear view mirror at the mound of scrap that used to be a robot, he says, "First things first, medical treatment for these two, and I'll come back afterwards." Category:Log